Friday, November 25, 2005

work is going.....a bit frazzled lately....feel like it should be a weekend when I could sleep in the mornings a little longer if I wanted to but it is only Friday. I have some lines to make up also. Boring entry I know..haha

Thursday, November 24, 2005

So did you all get it right? I tried that new recipe for roasting a turkey below and it was FABULOUS! The breast was so tender and JUICY! YUMMMMY! I could not believe it. I will only roast my turkeys breast down in the future too. Makes a world of difference!

So the day actually felt like a holiday to me even though I had to work this morning. Nice slow day. Lots of nice things to eat. Watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade..or most of it...okay...bits and pieces of it. Had a wonderful dinner. Took a couple hours to clean things up.....back IN my jammies already and soon to have some pumpkin pie and coffee.

AND the turkey is calling my name again from the fridge!

We set aside time to give thanks to the Lord for all our blessings. Hope you had a wonderful day too. I think it felt more like a holiday today as I was not trying to set the Christmas tree up today as well. Let's take ONE holiday at a time!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

I am using Picasa and Image Shack to post images here...I like Picasa the best for HERE because if Image Shack has problems my pics disappear....They are ALWAYS here if I use Picasa. Image Shack sometimes is a bit quicker...such a dilemma. Anyway..if any of my pics on this blog start to disappear on me...I will probably start using ONLY Picasa.

Not sure why I decided to post all that here. Not like anyone else even reads this probably let alone cares! haha

thinking of doing any house decorating this weekend for Christmas?? Think you can top this??? A bit long but worth the wait to see what all these people really did to coordinate their decor with music!

My turkey is thawing in the sink in water. I decided to go with 2 Mrs. Smith's pies as they were buy one get one free and what we had planned on getting (pumpkin cheesecake) they were out of. SO I got a mince meat pie and an old fashioned pumpkin. So those are now baked. Turkey will be dressed and prepped AHEAD of time and put BACK in the fridge which is something I don't normally do. I want to try to do as much TONIGHT as I can so I can actually take the morning and day oFF once I get my work done in the wee hours!

I made some Hawaiian bread dip...so GOOD! I think everything else is under control. So.....won't be long till we start smelling wonderful turkey smells!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

OKay...I came across a show on PBS on Saturday night...called The Red Green Show...it is HILARIOUS! Maybe only appealing to someone like me...not sure. Something about it I like...and so did Keith. We laughed for most of the time it was on! I guess because it is based at this lodge...and I like lodges....and he uses a lot of DUCT tape for things...which I have a history of the same (at least in my past)..hahaah...

"The Red Green Show" is a unique half-hour comedy series targeted at family audiences. Its purpose is to entertain and to provide an escape from the pressures of urban living.

Set way up north at the infamous Possum Lodge, The Red Green Show is a hilarious insight into men, their dreams, and their obsessions. It's a show for anyone who thinks God created man to give the rest of the world something to laugh at!

Steve Smith plays the acerbic, dry-witted Red Green, lodge leader and host of the show that takes special aim at the yet unexplored humorous side of the male ego and other inflatables. Pat McKenna plays Harold, Red's techno-geek nephew, and Rick Green (no relation to Red) is the klutzy naturalist Bill. Each week they pass the time bonding, adventuring, entrepreneuring and basically keeping the eight-year-old in them alive and well.

Regular segments include "Handyman's Corner," which highlights Red's philosophy: "If women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy." Using the handyman's secret weapon "duct tape," Red demonstrates innovative and useful construction tips on everything from turning a refrigerator into a dishwasher, to converting a hot water tank into a mini-submarine.

Since experiencing the great outdoors is a big part of what makes a man a man, Possum Lodge's resident naturalist, Bill, presents a hilarious segment appropriately call "Adventures With Bill." Narrated by Red and shot in black and white, Red and Bill teach viewers about nature. Presented in a slapstick style, Bill usually ends up falling in a lake, or off a cliff, but is always eager for the next adventure.

"The Experts" features a panel of Possum Lodge members who deal with viewer mail and those three little words that men find impossible to say..."I Don't Know." Red also serenades his audience with twisted (yet manly) campfire songs and reads environmentally-Green poetry in The Winter of our Discount Tent.

Monday, November 21, 2005

You have to check it out....they have great ANIMATED WALLPAPERS for your PC! I LOVE the "LIVING SNOWGLOBES"...3 different scenes for winter....one of a ski resort with skiers, ski lifts, snowmobiles, snow plows, etc going by....one of a house at Christmas and deer and horses with sleighs going by... and another one of an Igloo with am Eskimo ice fishing..etc. SO amazing...these are WALLPAPERS for your desktop...so when you see your screen BEFORE a screensaver would even come on..it looks like ONE IS ON as these MOVE...so COOL! Just be sure when installing that you leave everything UNCHECKED till the agreement with FREEZE at the end.....or you will be installing things you probably do NOT want to install...but I have never seen anything like these before...fabulous! The people and things INSIDE the snowglobes all move and the snow falls...amazing....

This is probably how I remember Vera and Ed the most...well..this is Dad and ED...but they used to come over and sit around the table and play cards, drink coffee and eat cheap cookies from the store! They played Euchre and sometims Rook......talk about nagging each other...Vera and Ed were a matchup! BUT so many laughs....Ed said little but when he did it was usually always meaningful. I am not sure where this photo was taken but I think their house one time in town

This was taken at my mom and dad's house one year....cannot remember WHY. A few in this photo are no longer with us....my grandpa in the back row with the dark glasses....my favorite Uncle ED in the middle in the back row...and my aunt Vera on the right end of the sofa (married to Ed). I am the one with the LONG hair on the floor holding the little one!

From when I was a little girl....sometime in the 60s I guess....I wish this showed the tree but this was a Christmas Eve from my childhood in my grandma and grandpa Custer's house...see the clock in the background....the bay windows are to the right

Miss Minda's B-Box Writing IdeasWhere Did Your Grandparents Live....What Was There House Like and Smell Like?

WOW. Such a GREAT topic to write about! I am not sure I can put a picture on here but I can try to describe it all really well!

My grandparents have always lived in a small town in Ohio called Arcanum! My grandma still lives there today (as my grandpa has passed on). The house is a small but quaint 2 story home which looked oddly a lot bigger when I was smaller! Now today while it is a 2-story home it reminds me more of a 1 1/2 story home if that is even possible! BUT it is a yellowish/cream color on the outside....has a wonderful 3-sided bay window area in the larger living room. This juts out into the front yard area. They used to have SLATE SIDEWALKS! Great for roller skating really fast and great for falling flat on your butt! Man did that ever hurt!

There is a 2 car garage out back separate from the house. Also creamy color. Windows on it. Almost looks like a small house itself. Nice small backyard with a clothesline on the side.....some huge evergreen trees and some other trees..a couple of which are now missing as a tornado a few years back decided to promptly redo their landscaping and remove those trees! A porch that has RED painted cement on the floor. With white painted (oh what do you call it.....) TRELLIS! on the open areas of the front porch you look out onto the lawn or street from. There is another ENCLOSED porch around the other side which in reality is probably more officially the front of the house...but we call it the side .....it is enclosed...all these glass windows you can CRANK open into little slatted windows......also with RED painted cement flooring. A door there is glass panes and old brown wood...that has such a great rubber seal on the bottom that when you open it....it makes a wonderful tight WHOOSHING sound when the rubber glides over the cement flooring!Inside you find a magical treasure trove of STUFF! Chairs, antique items....all piled around. Your head can almost make you sick as it has to move back and forth, back and forth, just to take everything in. A true "feast for the eyes" it is. AND a very memorable CHALKBOARD on the inside wall of that back porch....where family members leave messages for each other. I believe one from grandpa might still be written on there. Or one from some family member. But the porch always had that chalkboard to write messages on if we stopped by to visit and someone was NOT home. We could tell them we came by. OR vice versa...they would write down on the board that they had gone somewhere and would be back. Those were the days when it seemed everyone had little notepad holders of some kind on their front doors or porches so you could leave a note if you happened to miss them!

The yard was ALWAYS bumpy. I remember grandpa rolling it all the time but no matter how often it always seemed it was bumpy when you walked across it. Big green everygreen-type bushes all along the outside walls of the house on all sides. AND ALUMINUM-type roofing! EVEN PAINTED SILVER!!!!! Always reminded me of a barn type roof. SO you face the front and there are 3 big steps leading up to the front red-painted porch and the ever present and familiar front door and doorbell. Again this porch is filled with antique items. Mailbox on your right side. Evergreen bushes on either side of the bottom 3 steps leading up to the porch. To your left would be a huge side yard (but really a front yard) and more of those evergreen bushes.........all a wonderful creamy yellow color....white trim...and a silver roof. AND don't forget the red painted cement flooring to the porches. Around to your left is again the yard, and you see the garage and through a WHITE PICKET fence and gate that SNAPS shut and makes a wonderfully familiar SMACKING sound...is their back yard where I remember grandma hanging many clothes outside to dry on the clothesline. What a wonderful SMELL that is in itself.BUT on the inside you will find so many wonderful treats once again for eyes, ears and nose! ANTIQUES EVERYWHERE.....clocks clock and more clocks! Some on the walls....some on tabletops.....and PLATES! COLLECTIBLE PLATES....covering nearly EVERY INCH of the walls in EVERY ROOM! Grandpa was an AVID collector and there was not one room you could go into without seeing plates hanging! Low ceilings in every room bu the living room and family room. AND I remember the walls to those rooms......with a leaf-veined design on what felt and looked like some type of cement walls and ceilings! Painted GOLDISH-CREAMY-YELLOW also. AND METAL large slat VENETIAN BLINDS on all the windows and doors. Loved the sound those made hitting the doors and windows! Older green and gold carpet on the floor but the kitchen had newer RED wall-to-wall carpet that lead into the dining room area. BIG WOODEN dining room table and chairs in there...almost CLUNKY. STEEP narrow small-footed stairs leading up to the top floor. So much stuff all around and sitting in every available inch of space...on tables.....on the floor....all over the walls. I guess that is where all my family gets their clutter tendencies! BUT we did not think of it as clutter. It was a treasure trove of stuff! AND pretty much all antiques! Something to see and explore in every room and even out into the garage where grandpa had accumulated TONS of stuff that filled every square inch of space in there too......they barely had room to creep their car into a parked space inside the garage on ONE side only!

BUT the smells of their house is one of the most wonderful things I remember to this day. I LOVE IT! In fact my grandma recently sent me an afghan and I had to keep it in the bag she sent it in for a few days...just so I could open that bag and take a whiff of wonderful grandma and grandpa house smells! I wish I could pinpoint exactly what makes up that smell. Kind of like Dial soap, mothballs and fried chicken and chicken and noodles and grandpa's old after shave all rolled into one.

I remember clocks...BIG TICKING clocks hanging on the walls that you would HEAR constantly tick-tocking away all the time. Even in complete human voice silence those clocks would continue talking amongst themselves into a very rhythmic, soothing beat of their own. I love and remember their furniture in the front room. The texture to it is strange. Kind of little bumpy-feeling material...but soothing and semi-soft at the same time. Big oversize circus -wheel -drum type footstool....2 color......TONS of chairs and antiques galore. Hand made doilies on the backs of the chairs and arms of the chairs. LOTS of rocking chairs which I LOVE! TINY hallway leading to the family room from the kitchen. Tiny bathroom that had a white painted door and lavendar-colored tiling on the inside with an old-fashioned medicine cabinet mirror above the sink with 2 old fashioned lights attached to each side. OH and grandma and grandpa's SLEIGH bed upstairs! Wonderful antique beds upstairs! The smells of grandma's ALWAYS freshly washed and usually IRONED sheets and bedspreads ever present in the room.

AND Christmastime was a wonderful treat. ALWAYS a fresh cut tree in the bay window area. ALWAYS white lights and antique glass ornaments on the tree. ALWAYS ANGEL HAIR and an ANGEL on top...never a star. AND those BIG OLD-FASHIONED Christmas lights trimming the outside of their house. Always a familiar sight to try to find in the dark on a visit up. Usually in a wonderfully peaceful BLUE!Just a wonderful treasure trove of sights, smells and sounds I will NEVER forget and sorely miss and LOVE to experience each time I get back to Ohio for a visit. I have many wonderful childhood memories from their home and will sorely miss it one day I am sure!

BUT what we probably remember the most is everytime we left their house.....grandma and grandpa would come outside on the front porch and stand there and wave and watch us drive all the way down the street. You could look back at any point and there they both would be...watching and still waving! They would watch us leave till we actually turned the corner and they could watch us no more! I have that image of them both still standing there today, watching and waving. I will forever.